Taught by: Dr. Nancy Brich-Wagner, Associate Academic Dean

The legend of the scholar who makes a pact with the devil has long appealed to artists and writers as the archetypal search for mastery and self-fulfillment. It is the story of the conflict between good and evil, man and woman, life and death, self and community, education and experience, science and alchemy, and faith and reality. Using Goethe’s Faust, parts one and two, as our primary texts, this course will investigate Faust’s quest both as a masterpiece of world literature and as metaphor for the battle between good and evil. The myth will be studied as psychology and symbol, and as legendary inspiration for the operas, paintings, illustrations, songs, and films that will be experienced and discussed in the class sessions.